About Next Level Ventures

Next Level Ventures is a venture capital firm which invests in growing companies that are based in Iowa. We typically invest $1 million to $4 million for a minority ownership position in later-stage venture situations. Our team is looking for Iowa companies that have the potential to become big opportunities.

We provide capital and strong management expertise to help your company grow. Next Level Ventures is a certified Iowa Innovation Fund, contributing to Iowa’s economic development, and proud to be a part of the Iowa business community.

Our Portfolio

We have backed the following exciting Iowa based companies and are seeking up to ten portfolio companies in Fund I.

Capital:
We typically invest $1 to $4 million for a minority ownership position in each company. Through our investment partners, we can do even larger transactions. We generally invest for two to five years.

Areas of Focus:
We focus on Iowa businesses that can scale rapidly and operate in the advanced manufacturing, bioscience, and information technology sectors. These companies generally have at least $1 million in annual sales and a clear path to substantial revenue growth.

Our Team

We are native Iowans who are dedicated to providing both strong investment returns to our investors and economic growth to communities in Iowa.

Craig Ibsen

Managing Principal

Craig has over 25 years of investment, entrepreneurial and senior management experience in the US and globally. He served as an officer of Maytag where he led the operations of the Amana Commercial Division and Jade Products. Craig founded and was CEO of Appliancezone, a supply chain software company based in London. Craig is a co-founder of Rebound Enterprises, which invests in various companies. Craig currently serves on the boards of BirdDogHR, VIDA Diagnostics and MetaCommunications and was the Chairman of Global ID Group which was acquired by Inverness Graham in 2013.
Craig is a native and resident of Des Moines, IA. He is also a member of Plains Angels, an angel investment group and has made several investments in Iowa and around the Midwest. He holds an MBA from Drake University and a BA from Luther College.

Duane Harris

Principal

Duane has had over 30 years of experience in academics, business management, and private equity investing. He served as a professor at Iowa State University, worked as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and managed corporate M&A and business development activities at General Mills. Duane also helped build two private equity firms, first Churchill Capital and then Northstar Capital, that collectively have managed over $1 billion in investments. Duane also serves as a Partner of Capital Management Resources, an administrator for investment funds.
For six years, he has been an active sponsor of the Okoboji Entrepreneurial Institute. Duane has residences in Ankeny and Wahpeton and manages his family’s farm near Atlantic. He holds a PhD from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MS and BS from Iowa State University.

Scott Hoekman

Principal

Scott has had several experiences as a CFO, investor, and strategic advisor. In these roles, he has worked on transactions that total more than $2 billion and has served on four boards of directors. He previously worked with UICO (a venture-backed touch technology company), Maroon Analytics (a private equity and advisory firm), New Markets Pte Ltd (a family investment office in Singapore), President Bill Clinton Foundation (a non-profit), Long Point Capital (a private equity firm), and Bear Stearns (an investment bank).
Scott is originally from Des Moines, and his family has a farm near Fairfield. He is a member of Plains Angels and was a member of Hyde Park Angels in Chicago, and Scott has invested in several start-up companies. Scott holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from Colgate University.

Barbara Gooch

Director of Administration

Barbara has over 25 years of experience in all administrative activities for private equity fund management. She built the administrative infrastructure for both Churchill Capital and Northstar Capital where collectively she managed the administrative function for five separate funds.
In addition, Barbara serves as the Managing Partner of Capital Management Resources where, during the past 14 years, she has developed and managed the administrative function for six private equity clients managing 11 separate funds. She also has prior experience in various administrative roles at Citicorp and CenterPoint Energy. She received an AA degree from Pillsbury College.

Ryan Gerhardy

Senior Associate

Ryan has over five years of experience in investment banking, equities research and project finance. Most recently, he managed the M&A advisory team in Sydney, Australia for Grant Thornton providing middle market clients advice and execution services regarding their acquisition, divestment and capital raising activities. Ryan also worked in a similar role at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and prior to this worked at Commonwealth Bank of Australia as a sell-side research analyst and in the institutional banking property division.
Ryan is originally from Perth, Australia and relocated to Des Moines in March 2014. He is a member of Plains Angels and is actively involved in the startup community in Iowa. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Notre Dame Australia and a Masters of Finance from Curtin University of Technology.

Tej Dhawan

Senior Adviser

Tej remains a fixture in the startup community centered in Des Moines. With a background in co-founding and leading a technology firm, he remains deeply committed to technology and its applications. As a co-founder of StartupCity Des Moines, the Startup Iowa initiative, Plains Angels investment network, a member of the Iowa Venture Capital Association, the Midwest Angel Syndicate, Rise of the Rest Iowa team and much more, his focus remains on fostering and growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem. As a part of the founding team and board member for the Global Insurance Accelerator and engagement with the Iowa Agritech Accelerator, Tej is always looking for support systems that enable innovation. A graduate of Central College and now a board member of his alma mater, Tej serves various non-profits in the community including Ballet Des Moines and the Technology Association of Iowa.

Jan9

Gov. Reynolds unveils commercial driver’s license test prep app

Written by: Joey Aguirre

January 9th 2018 in Clay & Milk

What used to be a booklet has become an app.

In her first press conference of the 2018 legislative session, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Transportation unveiled a mobile app for commercial driver’s license prep. The app is available for free to anyone with an Iowa driver’s license or ID card and is available for IOS, Android and desktops. It features 72 practice tests and the official CDL Manual.

The Iowa CDL Test Prep guide is the federal CDL manual converted to an app.

“I continuously challenge state agencies to find ways to modernize our government products and services,” Reynolds said. “In doing so, we increase access to our citizens by offering those products and services in ways that make it easier for people to use them.”

“The Iowa DOT has accepted that challenge,” Reynolds said. “By developing the CDL test app, the Iowa DOT recognizes how Iowa people learn and that their lifestyles have changed. Studying from a written manual didn’t really meet peoples needs, so they adjusted.”

He said there are a number of factors for the shortage, mainly drivers must be 21 to drive on the interstate and insurance companies won’t cover drivers until they are 23.

“The people we see coming into the industry are in the mid-40’s and have been displaced from another industry,” Egli said. “We need to get that message out there and this app will really help that.”

And because Higher Learning Technologies has developed apps for other industries such as retail, education and dentists, Reynolds said it is, “Limitless” as to what can be converted from paper to app.

“It’s really about finding ways to meet people where they’re at,” Reynolds said. “The Iowa Department of Transportation has really done a great job of trying to meet those needs. They’re an example that other agencies—who do a good job too—can follow.”

2017

Nov13

Iowa pharmacy company raises $2.5 million in investmentRead the full story byThe Gazette

Iowa pharmacy company raises $2.5 million in investment

Written by: Matthew Patane

November 13th 2017 in The Gazette

An Eastern Iowa pharmacy business has raised $2.5 million in investment funding to push forward its prescription delivery and management system.

SmartScripts, based in Washington, announced the investment, its first large round of fundraising, on Monday. The retail pharmacy has worked to develop a better way to package prescriptions for customers who need to take more than one type of drug a day.

“Our goal is to really simplify the process of people taking prescriptions,” company CEO and co-founder Todd Thompson told The Gazette.

Thompson, who has been in the pharmacy business for 20 years, said customers who take more than one prescription can face complicated schedules with restrictions on when and how patients need to take their medication.

“No one gets that right by the time they get home. It just ends up costing the system money, costs (the patients) issues with their health,” he said.

Instead of sending patients home with multiple pill bottles, Thompson said SmartScripts uses an automated process to package prescriptions in individual pouches based on when patients need to them. SmartScripts then delivers those packages directly to customers.

“Instead of you making four, five, six, 10 trips to the pharmacy, we synchronize them so everything is filled on the same day, once a month, and then we package them in that system through automation,” he said.

Rural Vitality Funds, an investment fund under the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, was SmartScripts’s lead investor.

“We could not be more excited to being working with SmartScripts as they continue to tackle the large problem of prescription medication adherence,” Adam Koppes, Iowa Farm Bureau investment manager, said in a statement.

Thompson said SmartScripts also has joined the Startup Accelerator program.

SmartScripts will use the funding to hire sales staff and build software to better connect with customers. The company also plans to open a new office in Iowa City with three full-time employees, Thompson said.

SmartScripts currently has 10 full- and part-time employees. During the next 12 to 18 months, Thompson said the company expects to have more than 50.

The nation’s retail pharmacy industry is dominated by a few giants, such as Walgreen’s and CVS. Thompson said his company can compete, in part, because it deliver prescriptions and doesn’t rely on in-store sales.

“Our model isn’t necessarily to bring people into a store. My thought is, when you don’t feel well, the last thing you need is to go out and drive to a pharmacy to pick something up,” he said.

“It takes a piece of the market share, but the beauty of this business is, there’s always room for people who offer a superior product and service,” Thompson said of his own company.

Retail pharmacies in the United States sold more than $379 billion worth of prescription drugs in 2016, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In Iowa, those sales were more than $3.6 billion last year.

The pharmacy business runs in Thompson’s family. Thompson is the stepdad of Roby Miller, founder of telepharmacy company Telepharm, which was acquired by Cardinal Health last year. Miller does not have an official role with SmartScripts, Thompson said.

Igor uses Power-over-Ethernet technologyRead the full story byClay & Milk

Aug25

Igor uses Power-over-Ethernet technology

Written by: Joey Aguirre

August 25th 2017 in Clay & Milk

With his newly developed technology Dwight Stewart brought lighting to life, so he named his company Igor.

And because Stewart started the company from his basement in 2013, he said he was on a, “Pretty good high” as he spoke in front of a crowd Thursday afternoon in his companies new 1,600 square foot office.

“You go through ebbs and flows being an entrepreneur and this is one of those moments where you see everyone who has supported you throughout the years all in one place,” Stewart says. “So it feels like a pretty good high.”

Igor is the second company Stewart has founded. After graduating from Iowa State Stewart was a cofounder of Strategic Attributes Software Inc. in 2003. Him and his cofounders sold and exited from the company in 2010.

Igor—a Power over Ethernet company—utilizes new technology to deliver power through ethernet cords. It’s cheaper, safer, more efficient and provides data on each light.

“I spent five years just focusing on building the technology,” Stewart explained. “Now we are in commercialization mode but just to get the basics of a lighting control system this sophisticated, it takes a lot of development time and effort.”

The new space was visited and toured by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds who left, impressed.

“What you are doing to connect L.E.D lighting with fixtures and sensors is amazing,” Reynolds said. “What you are doing fits right into that wheelhouse as we try to be more energy-efficient and do everything we can to keep the cost of energy down.”

Reynolds said the small to medium-sized startup companies will sustain the Iowa economy.

“Companies like yours are going to benefit the state and help us employ Iowans to grow our economy,” Reynolds said.

Stewart said the business is evolving into a unifying Internet of Things platform, going beyond lights and into sensors.

He said controlling the lights can help with people diagnosed with early stages on Alzheimer’s or dementia.

“You can create this environment for people, because that’s what people want at the end of the day is to create an enviornment for themselves,” Stewart says. “And the light is a major component of that.”

Jul18

Coralville's HLT raises $8 million investmentRead the full story byThe Gazette

Coralville's HLT raises $8 million investment

Written by: Matthew Patane

July 18th 2017 in The Gazette

A Coralville technology company has raised $8 million in investment to boost its development of mobile study apps.

Higher Learning Technologies will use the money to hire additional staff and increase its app development, its three founders told The Gazette this week. The company started with a single study app for dental students and now has a catalog of more than 100.

CEO Alec Whitters said it would cost HLT about $1 million to build an app and its software when the company started. Today it’s a fraction of that cost.

“In the beginning we had to build it up from scratch,” Whitters said. “Now, we can tap in to our existing software because we’ve made it so that way it can be very reusable and configurable. We’re able to leverage what we’ve already built.”

The fundraising is the second large investment round for HLT since it started in 2012 and brings the company’s total amount raised to about $15 million, they said.

The company sees their apps, such as the 20 they have for nursing, as the new version of textbooks. Instead of students or professionals carrying a book or sitting in a library to study, they can do it on-the-go on their smartphone.

“We started out in the beginning just focusing on nursing and dental and now we’re expanding much more broadly essentially as a mobile publishing company,” Whitters said.

Adam Keune, chief business development officer, said HLT will explore developing apps for professionals to use after they leave school, such as in professional certification, continuing education and potentially corporate training.

“That’s one of the most demanded things by millennials in the workforce, is they want to keep growing, they want to keep learning and get better at what they’re doing,” Keune said. “Finding them on the devices they’re already using and allowing them to grow from there is a big opportunity for us.”

The company has about 44 employees, with plans to hire 10 to 20 more due to the investment, chief financial officer Ben O’Connor said.

The most recent investment round includes HLT’s previous backers, such as Iowa and New York angel investors, and Des Moines-based venture capital fund Next Level Ventures.

HLT’s status as a “leading mobile learning platform” led to Next Level’s investment, Managing Principal Craig Ibsen said in an email.

“That is a big deal and we have been excited to see HLT continue to grow and expand the use of their platform into areas like professional certification and continuing education,” he said.

The investment in HLT marks the eighth for Next Level in Iowa-based companies, a fund founded on investing specifically in companies in the state.